


That's (Not) My Name

by tonysbruce



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (for a little bit), 5+1, 5+1 Things, Awkward Flirting, F/M, Fluff, Nicknames, Pre-Avengers (2012), Tony Stark Has A Heart, Wedding Fluff, but she loves it, pepper thinks the name pepper is ridiculous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-26 17:02:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6248230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tonysbruce/pseuds/tonysbruce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>“Mr. Stark?” she called after him, and she quietly cleared her throat as he turned around for a second. “My name is Virginia.”</em>
  <br/>
  <em>Tony blinked, then chuckled. “Sure,” he said, turning back around with a casual wave. “Okay, Pepper.”</em>
</p><p>Five times Tony called her 'Pepper,' and the one time he finally got it right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Mistake

Another day, another budget report.

All through college and throughout the few years after, she’d never been able to catch a break from people telling to go work for Stark Industries. _Sure, it’s had its problems, but the Stark son is rebuilding it,_ they would say, trying to convince her. _You’ve got such a knack for business, Virginia. You’re the one who could help him._

The first time she heard it was from her mother. And of course it came from her mother, because that’s just what mothers _had_ to say. She didn’t really believe it, at least not until she heard it from professors, peers, other business professionals. It still seemed too far-fetched to be anything she could achieve, but hell, she tried it anyway. So at the fresh age of 26, she took a plane out to L.A. with nothing more than a duffel bag and a reasonable dose of hope, and found her way to an open interview at SI.

She got the job on the spot.

However, her minor in accounting got her farther than her actual Bachelor’s in business did, and she’d ended up stuck in the budget office at Stark Industries for a year to the day.

_Well, at least I’m working here._

She sighed, pulling her gaze from the blank wall of her cubicle to refocus on the thick packet of papers that sat idle on her desk. It seemed like the damn font on those numbers got smaller and smaller every day, and she dreaded the day she started finding crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes from spending about 75 percent of her life squinting at papers or a computer screen. Her mind mused over that for a second, then wandered to what she might have for lunch as the clock inched slowly towards noon, then to what crappy program was on network TV that night. It was the typical routine she went through every day as she mindlessly checked off the numbers, making sure everything was okay to be approved by the next department.

She’d been about to flip the page before her tired eyes caught a particularly long string of numbers that was well into the billions instead of the normal millions, and she paused abruptly. Well, that couldn’t be right. She went back over the rest of the page and the pages before that, trying to find a reason for the gluttonous amount of money, but there wasn’t one. It couldn’t have been a typo, and a mistake in _that_ particular fund—that could only come from the top.

She hastily pulled herself to her feet and grabbed the packet, walking briskly to the door with her eyes still trained on that disgusting number.

“Virginia?” Somebody poked their head out of a door as she walked by, but she didn’t bother to look to see who it was. “Potts, where are you going with that?”

“Nowhere important,” she called back dismissively. “I’ll probably be back in a minute.”

And she probably would be. Nobody in her department ever got in to see _the_ Tony Stark, and there wasn’t any reason to believe that she could, either.

Whatever, though. The 365 days she’d spent working for SI had remained rather dull and static, maybe it was time to try something ridiculous.

The elevator ride to the executive floor was vaguely nerve-wracking once she realized how stupid this decision was, but before she could back out she was walking up to the expansive wooden doors that were etched with “ _Chief Executive Officer: Anthony E. Stark,”_ and guarded by a burly man who honestly seemed like neither his bark nor bite were very terrifying.

“Can I help you?” the man asked, and she gestured to the papers in her hands.

“I need to see Mr. Stark,” she replied, “it’s important.”

The bodyguard simply scoffed, looking her over before meeting her eyes with a quirked eyebrow. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

“I do.” She should have left already. Dammit. Talking back to Tony Stark’s bodyguard was probably not the best way to get promoted. “Look, there’s a huge mistake in this report, and if Mr. Stark doesn’t see it, it could very well cost this company everything it has—”

“—yeah, okay, I’m sure that’s true. Take it to your manager, sweetheart.”

“No. _He_ needs to see this.”

“And he will, eventually. Come on, let’s get you back downstairs.” The man stepped forward and gripped her by the arm, but the slender redhead was already two steps ahead of him. Before he realized it, she’d torn her arm out of his grasp and had a tiny can of pepper spray pointed at his face, finger on the trigger.

“Don’t touch me like that,” she warned, her hand trembling just slightly around the papers. “Or I’ll spray.”

The body guard sputtered for a moment, clearly not expecting _that._ “I’m calling security backup—”

“Happy, let her in.”

Slowly, she lowered the arm that held the spray, and turned her head to see Tony Stark, the _actual_ Tony Stark, standing in the doorway. For a moment she didn’t even breathe, but she wasn’t sure if it was because he looked a lot better in person than he did in pictures or if it was the embarrassment that the CEO of the company she worked for just caught her about to pepper spray his bodyguard.

_God, I’m so fired._

She finally came back to herself when she realized that Stark had been staring at her expectantly for the better part of a minute, and she hastily shoved the can of pepper spray back in her bag and nervously followed him into the office when he gestured.

“Who are you?” Stark asked, sauntering back to the desk chair that he sank back into while the woman was busy recomposing herself. “And did you really just threaten to pepper spray my bodyguard?”

“Um… Virginia Potts, sir.” She shifted uncomfortably, but was relieved when Stark leaned back in his chair and turned his gaze back to the things scattered across his desk, none of which seemed like they had anything to do with running a business. “And I suppose I did.”

“Huh. Feisty. Usually don’t expect that from… where are you from?”

“Accounting.”

“Oh, _god._ Really? Visits from accounting are never good.” Stark sighed and grabbed what looked like a stress ball, tossing it up in the air and then catching it. “What is it this time? Is it that fucking relief fund again? Look, I get that we need to have _some_ charity, but I’m not—”

“It’s the hedge fund, actually.” The redhead stepped forward and carefully slid the packet of papers onto Stark’s desk, trying to ignore the man’s blatant lack of professionalism. She’d heard many things about Stark’s infamous persona, but she’d never been quite sure what to expect. “I didn’t think you wanted to invest that much. I get that we’re in a risky business here, but not _that_ risky, Mr. Stark.”

“Oh. Shit.” Stark whistled after a quick glance at the papers, then went back to tossing the ball in the air. “Yeah, that’s a tad too much. I’ll get someone to fix that. Nice catch, Pepper. How long have you worked here?”

 _Pepper?_ She thought about correcting him, but given how the man had barely looked at her twice, she decided against it. “A year,” she replied, clasping her hands in front of her.

“Hmm. A year. Anyone ever mentioned a promotion?”

“I—uh—no,” she stammered, completely blindsided. She’d been expecting to walk in here and get fired by the CEO himself, but instead he was talking about… promotions? “I’ve been wanting to get into the business end of things, but I figured I needed some more experience down in accounting first.”

Stark hummed quietly, and it wasn’t until she looked up from the floor that she realized that his gaze had landed on her. The direct attention of Tony Stark was a surprisingly intense thing, and she suddenly wasn’t sure what to do with herself. “What if I said I had a different offer for you?”

“I suppose I’d hear it out.”

A slow smile spread across Stark’s face, and he spun around in the chair before looking back at the woman in front of him. “I’ve been looking for a new personal assistant. The last one was kinda flaky, definitely not the type of girl who would whip out a can of pepper spray to get in here to see me,” he explained, and she felt her heart stutter. “You’re feisty, and seem pretty damn smart. What do you say, want the job?”

Um… what? Did he actually—was this real? It seemed like the offer of a lifetime, but… she knew about how many PAs Stark had gone through in just the year that she’d worked there, and she had to admit the prospect of being just another statistic in the turnover was fairly terrifying. She’d heard the rumors about what the man was like personally, and she’d already witnessed was he was like (not so) professionally. It was probably a bad decision. _Don’t do this, Virginia._

“Sure.” Her mouth seemed to form the word before her brain had a chance to stop it. Too late now. “I’d be honored, sir.”

“Fantastic.” Another one of those cheeky grins appeared on Stark’s face, showcasing his glimmering chocolate eyes and perfectly white teeth. “I think we’ll be a winning combo. See you tomorrow, Pepper.”

She did her best to stifle a sigh underneath a smile and a nod before the man went back to his previous activities. There it was again.

_Pepper._

Okay, then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I needed a break from being the Angster-In-Chief over at my other fics, so have some tooth-rotting Pepperony fluff.
> 
> Basically I was thinking about Pepper's name a few days ago and how even though it's just a nickname Tony made up, for some reason the entire world calls her that??? So fluff happened. I've also never written a 5+1 before, so this was fun. (Also, this whole thing is done, so expect one chapter per day until all six are posted.)
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.


	2. The Encounter

To say the least, the first week as Tony Stark’s personal assistant had been fairly turbulent.

To some degree, many of the rumors Pepper had heard in the media and from fellow SI employees were true. Tony slept late, never showed up to work on time, he drank, he partied, he flirted, he had sex multiple times a week (sometimes multiple times a day if she was hearing the noises right). He walked around his home clad in torn up, holey tank tops, or sometimes, when he was particularly lazy, she’d find him passed out in the workshop with engine grease stains streaked across his bare torso and sweatpants that had seen better days. His room was a pigsty despite the probably overpaid staff he had to clean it, and Pepper had decided early on that she didn’t want to know what kinds of things were in the seven other bedrooms the mansion was equipped with.

Honestly, Tony Stark was a damn mess.

And, much to Pepper’s chagrin, he was _her_ damn mess.

There was a reason she’d decided a while ago that she didn’t want children, and the reason was simple: kids were messy, irresponsible, and required too much constant attention and care. Pepper just wasn’t cut out for that kind of thing, or so she thought, until she found herself with a giant, 32-year-old overgrown man-child.

Okay, maybe _man-child_ was a little harsh. He was grown and had a brain—a brilliant one at that—but Pepper just couldn’t shake the feeling that she was more of a babysitter than a personal assistant.

However, as much as she understood why the previous PAs had left, Pepper stayed. If anyone asked, she would have said it was because of the great pay and the fact that she was no longer stuffed in a cubicle for eight hours a day. Truthfully, though… she liked him. Despite his over-the-top public persona and crude sense of humor, there was something about him, probably buried very far underneath, that was charming. His charisma was infectious, and even if Pepper wanted to leave, she didn’t think she could.

For god’s sake, he even had her calling herself _Pepper._

She sighed, which was something she did far too often these days, and turned back to the mess of a table in front of her. Tony had his various sets of car keys scattered in the drawer among other things, and Pepper had made it her mission for the morning to try and organize it. She knew it would be back the way it was whenever Tony decided he wanted to drive one of those disgustingly expensive and ridiculously fast cars, but the task was mindless enough to keep her occupied without being stressed. She’d already had enough of that for the day when she’d been tasked with escorting Tony’s most recent one-night-stand out of the mansion while he was still asleep, and the entire time with the scantily-clad supermodel was spent wondering where the hell this kind of thing was in the job description.

“Hey, sexy.” Pepper was so occupied with rummaging through the mess of the drawer that she almost missed Tony’s raspy, hungover voice, and she quirked an eyebrow, but didn’t turn around. “What’re you doing up so early? Didn’t you enjoy last night?”

Pepper wondered what he was talking about, or if he was just sleep-talking to himself. That happened quite often, she’d discovered, and she had almost resolved herself to just let him ramble until she felt a warm body incredibly close behind her and a set of rough hands on her waist. “Mr. Stark—” she stuttered out, wanting so badly to move and get out of this situation, but she was pretty much trapped between Tony and the table.

“Thought I told you to only call me that in bed,” Tony murmured, and Pepper felt her skin start to burn and tingle. She could smell the alcohol on his breath because he was just _that_ close, and for some stupid reason her body wasn’t letting her do anything but just keep standing there. “Come on, let’s go back upstairs and you can call me that while I—”

“ _Mr. Stark!”_ Pepper’s body finally seemed to get over the shock and sluggishness, and she quickly turned around, but ended up with her face barely two inches from his. Oh, god. She didn’t know what was worse. “It’s me.”

“It’s who?” Tony pulled a face and rubbed a hand over his eyes, and thankfully backed off a little bit so Pepper could breathe. He pushed the hand through his sleep-mussed hair and finally opened his eyes properly, and when he did he dropped an expletive that Pepper was fairly sure she’d never actually heard before as he took several flustered steps back. “Oh my god, _Pepper?”_

Pepper gulped and did her best to put on a smile, but whatever expression appeared on her face was probably ruined by the intense blush that had spread over her pale skin. The way he always said ‘Pepper’ made it seem like more of a pet name than a regular nickname, and that was _not_ a notion she was equipped to deal with at the moment. “Good morning, Mr. Stark,” she said, trying to get past this as quickly as possible.

“Oh my god.” Tony scratched the back of his neck, clearly still dazed and trying to find words. “What happened to…?”

“Miss Erisman left about an hour ago,” Pepper explained, knowing Tony wouldn’t remember his date’s name. Hell, she was pretty sure he didn’t even remember _her_ name. “She had to catch an early flight to Paris.”

“Mmm.” There was a pause that felt far too long and far too awkward, but Pepper didn’t know what else to say to break it. Tony still just stood there, clearly trying to think through the bitch of a hangover he probably had. “Probably not how you expected to start your morning,” he said, words vaguely slurred.

“No, not exactly.” Pepper gave the smile another try, and got a little bit closer the second time.

Tony caught the sheepish curve of her lips, and grinned back easily. Pepper still had no idea how he was able to smile like that so quickly, but she just added it to the list of Things about Tony Stark She Didn’t Understand. “Well, since I pretty much just drunkenly groped you, I guess your initiation is complete,” he said, and Pepper genuinely could not tell if he was joking. “So, if you wanna go upstairs and seal the deal…”

“What?” Pepper asked incredulously, caught completely off guard. He did not just insinuate that. Did he? He definitely did. “No!” she added hastily, and the blush came back immediately. “No, I’m really not that kind—”

“Kidding, kidding. Christ, Pepper, calm the fuck down.” Then Tony was laughing, and Pepper was three times as confused as she was five minutes ago. “I don’t sleep with my employees. That’s just trashy. Anyway, I’m gonna go make some coffee and have a shower. That chick had on some weird perfume.”

He turned away to wander towards the kitchen, and Pepper took a moment to catch her breath and get a grip before she straightened back up properly. “Mr. Stark?” she called after him, and she quietly cleared her throat as he turned around for a second. “My name is Virginia.”

Tony blinked, then chuckled. “Sure,” he said, turning back around with a casual wave. “Okay, Pepper.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tony u drunken dope
> 
> But oh my gosh thank you so much so all of you who left kudos/commented on the first chapter--all of you made me so happy and I'm so glad that people are liking this so far! Y'all are fabulous.


	3. The Jacuzzi

It had really been a week like no other. Tony had been in Switzerland at some tech conference for the better part of the week, and normally, Pepper would have gone with him. This time, though, she had to stay back, because of _course_ the company had to go get audited _that_ week, and Tony needed someone he trusted to stay in the office and handle that whole fiasco.

Apparently that trusted person was Pepper, despite that she’d spent the past five years working as only his personal assistant and really knew nothing about running an international, multi-billion dollar industry. The whole reason she’d gone to SI in the first place was to learn how to do just that, but somehow she’d ended up getting caught up in Stark the person rather than Stark the industry, and at that point in her life she knew more about what fabrics Tony liked to wear than how to make well-informed business decisions.

Oh well. She’d learn at some point, she was sure. She didn’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon—except to the Jacuzzi that was warm and bubbly underneath the night sky, and she was prepared to take full advantage of the empty mansion and beautiful evening weather.

Pepper dropped a fluffy towel on a nearby lounge chair and slipped off the satin robe she’d been wearing, revealing her simple black bikini underneath. Of the few swimsuits she owned that was the oldest and most worn in, but it wasn’t like there was anyone around she needed to impress. (Even if there was, she probably wouldn’t have cared anyway. Tonight was about being comfortable.)

She stepped delicately into the steaming water, and the sudden heat came as a shock to her feet and ankles, but she relaxed easily once most of her body was submerged. She sank down into the all-encompassing warmth and closed her eyes, letting all of the thoughts and worries drift out of her mind. Her limbs quickly turned to jelly, and Pepper could definitely say that it had been a very long while since she felt this content.

Damn. She needed to do this more often.

For all Pepper knew, she had spent hours consumed in her own relaxation and succumbed to the gentle sound of the waves lapping against the Malibu shore. She probably could have fallen asleep there if it wasn’t for her rational fear of drowning in Tony Stark’s hot tub, but even that thought meandered out of her brain after a short minute.

The waves and soft jitters of the night creatures around her dulled to a gentle pulse in her ears, and it was such a comfortable rhythm that the footsteps approaching behind her blended right in.

“Gotta say, I’m pretty used to finding girls in my Jacuzzi, but this is a new one.”

Pepper’s eyes flew open, and she jolted out of her deep state of relaxation to pull herself up on the slippery edges of the tub. She craned her head around to find Tony standing there with that ridiculous, cocky smirk that seemed glued to his face most of the time, and she internally sighed and kicked herself at the same time. “You’re supposed to be in Bern until tomorrow morning,” she stated. If this was a few years ago, she probably would have been flustered, but she’d since learned that showing any kind of embarrassment around Tony just served to encourage him more.

“Yeah, took an early flight out. The sessions tomorrow all seemed kinda shitty, and I have better things to do than watch Justin Hammer try to woo me,” Tony explained offhandedly, and Pepper watched as he fluidly lifted his arms and pulled his t-shirt over his head. “Anyway. You want some company in there?”

“Uh…” Well, so much for not being flustered. Tony was an infamous flirt, she knew that. But Pepper could feel him looking at her, and the fact that he had basically just stripped in front of her—ugh, god. This was weird. “I was just getting out, actually,” she said, moving to pull herself out of the tub and realizing that her towel was too far away to even try to be modest. “Enjoy yourself, I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Technically it is the morning,” Tony said matter-of-factly, and Jarvis confirmed a moment later by informing them that it was in fact 1:12 in the morning. “And I’d enjoy myself a little more if you stayed, Pep.” He slid into the water then, and Pepper bit down on the inside of her cheek. She hadn’t kept track of when _Pepper_ had become shortened to _Pep,_ but if anything, Tony’s usual informality just made this whole scenario more awkward than it had to be.

“I’m not quite sure what to make of that,” she said dryly and honestly, but allowed herself to sink back into the water again anyway. “But fine.”

“Why do you sound like you actually had to think about it?”

“Because I did.”

Tony pouted then, and Pepper just caught the mock-hurt expression on his face from the corner of her eye. No, there was no way she was giving that her full attention. “You wound me,” Tony whined, and Pepper decided to not dignify that with an answer. For her part, she felt like she could cut the tension in the air with a knife, and Tony must have picked up on it because after another beat of hesitation, he asked, “What, aren’t you relaxed anymore?”

“Yes, totally,” Pepper deadpanned, leaning her head back on the edge of the tub as she did her best to not look at him. “I normally sit half-naked in a steaming tub of water with my also half-naked boss in the middle of the night. No reason to _not_ be relaxed.”

Tony just grinned that stupid grin of his, and the way he folded his arms behind his head made his muscles stretch and flex in a horrifyingly attractive way that Pepper did her absolute best not to think about. “You make it sound like a bad thing,” he remarked, and if everything about this wasn’t already screaming ‘ _intense sexual tension’_ , it definitely was now.

Pepper had kissed her relaxation goodbye several minutes ago, but once Tony finally seemed to quiet down and she had her eyes thoroughly trained on the starry sky above, she felt her heart rate start to calm again. If she really worked to turn her focus within herself she could nearly forget that she wasn’t alone, but the soft sounds of Tony’s breaths and the classic rock tune he was humming under his breath brought her right back to realize that he was still there, right beside her, distracting as always.

“You know, everyone always thinks I call you ‘Pepper’ because of the freckles.”

Pepper blinked then, and gave up her view of the stars to look at Tony instead. “Excuse me?”

“Okay, by _everyone_ I really only mean Happy and Rhodey and stuff. But still. They’re always like, ‘oh, that’s cute, you call her that because the freckles look like pepper’,” he continued, his eyes on her but somewhere staring past her.

Yet again, Pepper didn’t know what to think of that, either. She'd gotten over the self-consciousness about her freckles when she was very young, but the way Tony seemed to be staring at her made her feel like she was thirteen again. He seemed to have a knack for that. “Um, that’s… nice?” She paused. “Why are you telling me this?”

“I dunno. I guess cause I never thought anything of it, but now I’m really noticing those freckles,” Tony explained, and Pepper felt her heart stutter so soon after it had quieted because, _god,_ he was actually checking her out, and this time she actually _knew it._

So she just cleared her throat quietly and tried to ignore his eyes on the admittedly obvious freckles that covered most of her pale, creamy skin, watching some of the steam curl upwards out of the water. “Do you clue them in to the real reason you call me that?” she asked.

Tony snorted a laugh. “Yeah,” he said. “Happy gets it—and he should, you scared the shit out of him with that spray. Not sure if Rhodey is buying it, though. On second thought, I guess the freckle thing sounds a lot more normal.”

Pepper smiled dryly. “Is anything about us normal, Tony?” she pointed out, and despite the conversation her voice took on a slightly fond undertone.

Tony made a show of stopping to consider, but looked back at her quickly, the corner of his mouth curled upwards. “Nah,” he said, “I guess not, Pepper.”


	4. The Avengers

When Tony had come home those couple years ago and spent about an hour bitching and moaning about how SHIELD thought he couldn’t be any more than a “consultant,” Pepper had to admit that she was relieved.

Most of her life since she’d met Tony had been spent chasing him around and cleaning up his messes, but after he came home from a three-month stint in Afghanistan, her job became significantly harder when she had to try and chase him around in a flying metal suit. When Obadiah happened so soon after Tony returned, she’d put it down as just a streak of bad luck and set out on the path to make things at least halfway normal again. Then Hammer happened, and Pepper realized that Tony’s newfound heroism was in for a lot more than a few instances of _bad luck._

So when he came home and told her that he’d been denied entry to SHIELD’s new band of misfit superheroes, Pepper was relieved. _So_ relieved. Maybe that meant that he could come back to the ground again knowing that others were there to fight the villains he’d been fighting; maybe it meant that she could sleep again at night.

Then Phil Coulson showed up on their doorstep, and that relief went up in flames.

Pepper knew going into it that Tony probably wasn’t going to come out unscathed. The man had so many scars drawn into his skin from the smallest and silliest of tasks that she was sure whatever SHIELD needed him for was going to leave a more than just a mark—but what she saw of the live news coverage on that plane back to New York, _that_ she didn’t expect.

“Who the _hell_ do you think you are?”

Pepper marched into the room and made a beeline towards Tony, the sharp click of her heels stopping just in front of him before she lifted a hand and socked him in the arm. It wasn’t enough to actually hurt him, just enough to display how _pissed_ she was, but Tony still hissed in pain anyway.

“Okay, I probably deserved that, but could you maybe do it in the other arm?” Tony said, and Pepper easily complied. “Christ. Alright, good, glad you got that out of your system. We good now?”

“No!” Pepper retorted, her blood boiling under her skin. She was happy to see him alive, she really was—clearly, she just had a different way of showing it. “Flying a _nuke_ into _space,_ Tony? What were you thinking?”

“You’re mad. I see that you’re mad. But I’m fine, see?” Tony spread out his arms and put himself on display, all cuts and bruises and trickles of dried blood. “It’s all good. So, Pepper, can we please—”

“ _Were_ you thinking?”

“Uh, yeah, I was thinking that I didn’t want to decimate the entire state of New York—”

“Do you even realize what could have happened if you hadn’t come out of that hole?”

“Kinda do, kinda don’t want to think about it,” Tony said, trying to get some words in before she cut him off again. “Look, Pepper, let’s just all calm down here and grab a nice cup of coffee or a nice glass of scotch, and talk about this later, okay?” He carefully set his hands on her shoulders and squeezed, but Pepper wasn’t having any of that.

“No, we’re talking about this now,” she said sternly. “We’re talking about this _right_ now.”

“Pep, honey,” Tony started, gripping tighter to her shoulders as he turned her around towards the other side of the room, and Pepper immediately felt herself start to deflate when she noticed that the chairs and sofas were littered with the same beat-up and battered group of people she had just watched fight alongside Tony on the news. “I really think we should talk about this later.”

The group of people in the room just looked back at her, each one with their own kind of tiny smile—the two tall, almost inhumanly broad blonde men both looked vaguely amused, the bruised and battered archer seemed like he was trying a little too hard to not burst into a fit of laughter, and the scrawny, curly-haired mess of a man who was definitely wearing some of Tony’s clothes looked like he was trying to avoid things getting any more awkward. The redheaded woman who Pepper recognized as Natalie—no, Natasha—was just sitting towards the corner with her arms crossed and a smirk on her lips, and Pepper knew that was because the woman had seen all of this before.

“Or we could still talk about this now,” Pepper commented, her voice considerably quieter and less infuriated, “I’m sure your super-friends would agree with me on how stupid that was.”

“I think your girl is right on that one, Stark,” said the blond tank of a man that Pepper recognized as Steve Rogers, and if she was sixteen again, she would have blushed wildly at the fact that _Captain fucking America_ was even looking at her.

“She usually is,” Tony said, and Pepper was almost amused at how easily he surrendered to that one. “Guess I should do the honors then,” he started, squeezing Pepper’s shoulders again, “guys, I present to you my better half, my soulmate, the yin to my yang, the—”

“Pepper to your salt?” Everyone in the room collectively groaned, and in all of her research, Pepper did not find ‘master of terrible puns’ in Clint Barton’s list of skills. “We all know who the famous Pepper Potts is, Tony. She’s kind of a big deal.”

Pepper smiled modestly and nodded towards them. It was probably a good thing they already knew—first impressions are everything, and she couldn’t imagine that the image of her strutting into the room to yell at her irresponsible boyfriend would have been a great one. “Well, all of you are kind of a big deal as well,” she said, “so I think we’re on the same page.”

 Steve looked at her again and raised a curious eyebrow, the corner of his lips twitching. “Is your real name actually Pepper?” he asked, and Pepper huffed a quiet, dry laugh. That question was bound to come up in any group of people she met, but she’d been thinking that maybe this group would be a little different, and that the question wouldn’t come from a genetically-modified super solider who was sitting next to a demigod named Thor.

“Not exactly.” Natalie—Natasha— _Nat_ (that seemed easiest) answered the question before Pepper could, though. She wasn’t expecting her of all people to jump into this particular conversation, but Pepper was happy to let someone else explain for once because Tony was still warm behind her, and she definitely wasn’t done with him yet.

She turned around to face him, and Tony’s hand slid slowly down her arm until he held up his palms again. “What, the beating isn’t over?” he asked, only halfway joking. “Didn’t you just say we were all on the same page?”

“Only if you understand one thing,” Pepper replied, and Tony looked at her expectantly. Her eyes stayed trained on the small gashes on his face and the bruises on his neck for a moment before she leaned forward and snaked her arms around him, holding him tightly enough for it to feel real but gently enough that he wouldn’t wince. “Don’t you _ever_ do that me,” she murmured against Tony’s ear, “ _ever_ again.”

“Do what?” Tony asked dumbly, and if Pepper hadn’t known he was just being an ass, she probably would have smacked him in his bad arm again. “You gotta be a little more specific there, there’s a lot of things you’ve told me to never do ever again.”

“Scare me like that,” Pepper clarified, picking her head up from his shoulder to look him in the eyes. “I don’t think I could have handled this one very well.”

“You know it’s not your job to clean up after me anymore, Pepper,” Tony chastised lightly, and the way he said her (nick)name brought her back to that very first day.

“Please.” Pepper just smiled. “That’ll always be my job, Mr. Stark.”


	5. The Magazine

Maybe it was cliché, but Friday was definitely Pepper’s favorite day of the week.

The clock struck five and she knew she was done for the day and the weekend, and sliding into the driver’s seat never felt so good. She loved her job, she really did; but there was something about knowing that she had three days of almost guaranteed peace and relaxation that had her going through the day eager for it to end. Aside from that, though, Friday was also Tony’s chosen night off—Pepper hated when he used the term ‘date night’, but that was more or less what it always amounted to.

The name may not have been her favorite thing, but she definitely didn’t hate the antics.

If someone had told her ten years ago that at some point in her life she’d be setting aside time for a quality date night with Tony Stark, she probably would have laughed in their face. Sometimes it still seemed surreal when she had too much time to think about it, but after all the hell they’d been through together, Pepper couldn’t say she was surprised that things ended up the way they did.

Pepper inhaled a breath of the fresh, beachy air on her way into the house, returning Jarvis’ greeting as she walked in and headed upstairs towards the bedroom. She could hear the pulse of music drifting out of the bedroom door down the hall, and she shook her head fondly. Typical.

“You’re home early,” Pepper commented as she walked into the room, slipping off her jacket and pulling her hair out of the tight bun it had been tied back in all day. “What’s the occasion for the sudden change of habit?”

“I dunno,” Tony replied nonchalantly, flipping the page of the magazine that he appeared to be reading. “Do I need a reason? Usually you let me get off of stuff without a reason.”

“Hm. I suppose I can let it slide this time.” Pepper looked over her shoulder at him with a little smirk on her face, then glanced at the magazine in his hands. “Since when do you read magazines? This might be too many changes for me to handle, Tony.”

“I always read them when you’re on the front,” Tony answered, waving the copy of _Business Insider_ that was dated about three months prior towards her before dropping it back in his lap. “And by reading I really mean just looking at the photo spreads.”

“Shallow,” Pepper chastised jokingly, murmuring the word under her breath but loud enough for Tony to still hear. She looked over at the page Tony had open as she wandered over to the wardrobe to pull out some more comfortable clothes, tsking quietly as she changed her shirt and pulled on some leggings. “I still think _Forbes_ did a better job last year.”

“That one was nice,” Tony nodded, abandoning the magazine for a moment in favor of unabashedly watching Pepper change. “But I think my favorite is that trashy spread with both of us in _Us Weekly_ last month.”

“You would like that.”

“Hey, just saying, I totally condone the use of a telephoto lens when it’s used to zoom in on us making out on the Malibu coast.”

Pepper wasn’t sure she wanted to dignify that with an answer, so she just shook her head and crawled into the bed beside him. She’d accepted the paparazzi thing a long time ago, before they even became romantically involved—it was just part of being within ten feet of Tony Stark, and as annoying as the camera flashes or insane zoom lenses were sometimes, she supposed it was worth it. She watched the side of Tony’s face for another moment as he continued flipping mindlessly through the pages, then lifted a hand to turn his face towards her and press her lips against his. Tony made a small noise of contentment in the back of his throat before he easily kissed her back, the photos in the magazine all but forgotten in favor of the real thing.

“You know, I can run and get the camera and we can recreate that whole trashy spread right now,” Tony murmured against her lips once they’d broken apart for air, his fingers sliding delicately through the back of her hair. “And then some.”

Pepper made a noise that sounded like something halfway between an annoyed groan and a laugh. “Let’s not and say we did,” she replied, pecking him on the lips one more time before she settled down against his side and pulled the magazine towards her, flipping through some of the other articles that weren’t SI-related.

Tony just rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded like a jokingly reluctant agreement before he seemed to decide that he was happy to let Pepper settle down and relax beside him. She felt his arm curl comfortably around her back and her waist warmed where he set his hand, and when Pepper thought back, she realized that maybe it wasn’t so surprising that they ended up so inseparable.

They sat like that for quite some time, just soaking up each other’s warmth and company. Pepper read most of the backdated magazine while Tony traced absent patterns on her side and dropped the occasional tiny kiss onto her jaw, and she decided that this kind of ‘date night’ definitely topped her list.

“When did you start letting everyone else call you Pepper?” Tony’s sudden question broke the silence then, and Pepper had to take a second to process it.

“What?” she asked, abandoning the page she had been about to turn. “Where’d that come from?”

Tony shrugged, gently bumping Pepper’s shoulder where it was resting against his own. “I dunno, I was just looking at the front of this,” he started, flipping the magazine back to the cover that read _‘Pepper Potts Spices Up Stark Industries’._ It was an overused headline that Pepper had seen far too many variations of on far too many magazines, and realizing that almost made her second-guess her answer to Tony’s question. “And it kinda hit me that literally the entire world calls you Pepper. Guess I was just wondering when my cute little nickname exploded into a worldwide phenomenon.”

“I think ‘worldwide phenomenon’ is pushing it a little,” Pepper said, a quiet laugh in her voice. “But… I don’t know. That’s how you always introduced me to people from day one, and I heard it so much from everyone around here that it just caught on, I suppose.”

“So it wasn’t about you trying to bruise my ego and trying to let everyone else in on our cute little name-game?”

“No.” Pepper smiled and shifted on the bed so she was facing him more properly, and lifted a hand to gently touch his cheek. “I have other ways to bruise your ego.”

“Rude.”

Pepper just wagged her eyebrows and slid her hand down to Tony’s chest, resting her palm gently right above where the arc reactor used to be. She looked down at her hand and let out a quiet, contemplative sigh, rubbing lightly at Tony’s chest. “I guess there might be one more reason,” she added.

“Oh?” Tony rolled his head over on the pillow and raised his eyebrows expectantly. “Please do enlighten me.”

Pepper inhaled, and a tiny smile curled at the corner of her mouth as she looked up at him. “When people call me Pepper… it makes me think of you,” she admitted, and she felt her cheeks warm under her skin.

Tony’s eyes glimmered, and the skin at the corners crinkled as he grinned widely. The smile was infectious, and the small twitch of Pepper’s lips easily stretched into a full-blown grin as she swung her leg over Tony’s hips to straddle his waist, leaning in to kiss him at the same time.

“Well… Pepper,” Tony purred, pecking her on the lips one more time, “I guess I can live with that.”


	6. Plus One: The Wedding

“Should I put my hair up or leave it down?” That was the first question Pepper spouted as soon as she heard somebody enter the room, and a quick glance at the side of the mirror revealed that it was Natasha standing behind her.

“Leave it down,” Natasha answered easily, stopping to stand beside Pepper in the mirror with a nod of approval. “You always put it up when you go to work, I think today should be a little different. Plus, it’ll go with the whole beachy aesthetic you guys have going on here.”

“True,” Pepper murmured, brushing her fingers through her hair one more time before letting the ginger locks fall in waves down her back. She took one more sweeping look at herself in the mirror, inhaled a breath, and finally decided she was satisfied. When she was younger, she’d been the typical wide-eyed girl with the typical fantasy of a big wedding in a big hall with an even bigger dress—hell, she even had the cliché scrapbook with bridal magazine clippings shoved under her bed. This was completely the opposite, though. When Tony proposed several months before, Pepper decided she didn’t need big and flashy; it just didn’t feel right. So they’d decided to get married at home on the evening Malibu coast, and Pepper had went with something easy—a simple, strapless floor-length white gown, hair down, no veil.

She’d always wanted her wedding to be perfect. Well, this was it.

A smile appeared on her lips as she turned her gaze to Natasha, who was in stark contrast beside her in a sleek, deep green dress that hugged her curves in all the right places. “You know, Nat, the maid of honor isn’t supposed to upstage the bride,” Pepper teased, quirking an eyebrow.

Natasha just rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest, giving her friend a smirk in the mirror. “No one is going to be looking at me with you standing there,” she said, “or they’ll be too busy figuring out how much money they lost in the bet when Stark actually gets married.”

“Bruce will be looking at you,” Pepper murmured, and the comment as well as the little grin on her face earned her a light elbow in the side from Natasha. The two of them were silent for a few moments after that, and Pepper absently lifted a hand to twirl a piece of her hair between her fingers. “Do you think I’m doing the right thing here?” she asked suddenly, staring back at herself in the mirror.

Natasha blinked and turned her head towards Pepper, giving the woman a pointed glance. “Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet,” she said, tone vaguely scolding.

“No,” Pepper shook her head, “no, I’m not. But I think it’s just a rite of passage to be nervous on your wedding day, right?”

“I suppose,” Natasha surrendered, even if she was still was still slightly on the fence. “But look at it, Pep, you two have practically been married for years already,” she started, and Pepper chuckled quietly. “You and Stark are meant for each other. You have nothing to be nervous about.”

Pepper felt herself deflate at that. Natasha was probably right—she and Tony were basically already married without the papers. They’d been bickering like a married couple since day one, and everything else had come slowly over the past few years. Today was just making it official. “Okay,” she finally said, nodding more to reassure herself than anyone else. “Yeah. You’re right.”

“Of course I am.” Natasha smiled, and reached over to take Pepper by the elbow and tug her away from the mirror and towards the door. “Come on, let’s go get you hitched.”

* * *

They had agreed on a small ceremony, and a small ceremony it was. The audience was only a group of their closest friends, and in his true protective, head-of-security fashion, Happy was the one to walk Pepper down the aisle and give her away at the altar.

“I’d tell you that I’ll kick his ass if he ever hurts you,” Happy whispered before he lightly kissed her on the cheek, “but I think we already know you got it covered.” Pepper just laughed softly and squeezed his arm before he let her go, and she took Tony’s outstretched hand, her breath leaving her for a moment once she finally got a good look at him up close.

He was dressed in a svelte, black velvet tuxedo, the only pop of color the silky red tie that he seemed to have tied perfectly himself without Pepper’s help. It was no secret that Tony Stark always looked stunning in a suit, but there was a particular glow about him today that made Pepper feel weak in the knees—maybe it was the way his eyes glimmered as he looked at her, or how his rough, almost shaky hands felt when they wrapped warmly around hers. Rhodey was standing beside him with a huge, ridiculous grin on his face, and Pepper would have returned it if she wasn’t so focused on Tony.

“Evening, gorgeous,” Tony murmured, and Pepper felt her heart swell.

The ceremony started then, and it took considerable effort for Pepper to put even a quarter of her attention on the officiant rather than leaving all of it on Tony. They’d managed to find someone that would perform a non-religious ceremony, more for Tony’s sake, but Pepper really didn’t mind. If anything, it made the whole night seem even more warm and intimate. The time came quickly for their vows, and Tony fidgeted just slightly after he elected to go first.

"You know... it took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to say here, only cause I realized that I've probably babbled it all at you before," Tony started, and Pepper had to laugh a little at his words and at his mannerisms. The corner of his mouth was twitching like it wanted to smile and he seemed a little fidgety, and Pepper found it cute that his usual formidable public speaking skills had gone out the window. "When I met you that first day, I knew that I knew that we were gonna be in for the long haul. Maybe not like this, but this happened, and... I'm so grateful." He paused for a second and squeezed tightly on Pepper's hands as he seemed to swallow something down. "I never thought anyone would want this with me, but here I am in front of this incredible, beautiful woman who apparently does. You make me see what's good in me, Pep, you make me feel like everything is worth it, and that's why I fall in love with you over and over again every single day." Another pause, and another watery smile. "I'm gonna keep doing that. I promise."

Pepper was sure that she probably looked ridiculous, standing there staring at Tony with a smile that was beginning to hurt her cheeks. She was quiet for a moment after, and was suddenly very thankful for waterproof mascara. “You should have let me go first,” she chastised teasingly, working on regaining her composure. Tony just shrugged, and she heard a soft chuckle out of Rhodey a few feet away.

“Tony…” Pepper sighed, looking down at their joined hands while she tried to gather her thoughts. Expressing feelings in words had never been her strong suit, but this was Tony, and if there was anyone she could say it to it was probably him. “I didn’t think I would ever be that girl who falls in love with her boss,” she began, and the way Tony’s mouth twisted into a little smirk almost made her lose it again. “But after spending all these years standing next to you, taking everything that’s been thrown at us, I realized that I didn’t fall in love with the guy who was my boss. I realized that there’s a guy underneath all the dark sunglasses and the flashy suits, and he’s thoughtful, and sensitive, and wants nothing more than to protect the people he loves. I guess I’m lucky enough to be one of them.” She hesitated and let go of one of Tony’s hands, and lifted her arm to gently touch his cheek. “I fell in love with the guy who’s so perfectly imperfect that he’s perfect for me, and I couldn’t be more ready to stand next to him, as his wife, and face whatever comes at us next.”

She finished then, and it was probably a good thing because she wasn’t sure if she would have been able to continue with the way Tony was looking at her. His inky eyes were brimming with probably every emotion he’d felt for her in the past fifteen years, and Pepper was sure that she probably looked the same if the warmth curling through her center was anything to go by.

They exchanged their rings then—simple, matching silver bands for the both of them—and said their ‘I do’s, and there was a brief beat of hesitation when it seemed like they were the only two there on their own, and then Tony’s lips were on hers, his hands around her waist, and Pepper melted. She kissed him with everything she had and held him like she’d never let go if she didn’t have to, and before she realized it Tony had bent forward again and his lips were warm against her ear, murmuring five words that lit a fire in the center of her chest.

“I love you, Virginia Stark.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm not crying there's just a pepperony in my eye
> 
> Anyway, I really enjoyed writing this fic, and I enjoyed hearing all of your thoughts even more. I'm so glad you guys liked it, and I very much appreciate all of the love! <3
> 
> (also, I really love writing pepperony and would like to do much more, so if you ever have any prompts, send them over to my tumblr, tonysbruce, and I'll see what I can do.)


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